Believe it or not, there was one brief yet distinct moment when Cardinals rookie catcher Pedro Pages and starting pitcher Kyle Gibson weren’t in complete synchronicity on Saturday night. The mind meld they enjoyed during Gibson’s gem of performance on the mound throwing to Pages had just one blip.
That blip came after Gibson’s ninth strikeout, the 1,500th of his major-league career, when the right-hander mistakenly thought the ball from the career milestone remained in play. He stepped off the mound and held the ball up to the dugout momentarily, thinking he needed to get the ball out of play — the veteran pitcher remembering how he wasn’t able retrieve the ball from his 1,00th strikeout.
Instead, Gibson later realized that Pages had already alertly tossed the strikeout ball to the dugout so it could be marked and tucked away as a keepsake for his pitcher.
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Aside from that one minor miscommunication, Pages and Gibson remained in lockstep throughout the outing — one of Gibson's best of the season. After Gibson exited, Pages shepherded the relief corps through the remainder of the Cardinals’ eighth shutout of the season.
As a bonus, Pages also provided the game’s only scoring play when he belted a two-run home run in the eighth inning off Seattle Mariners pitcher Logan Gilbert as the Cardinals earned a 2-0 win in front of an announced crowd of 38,532 at Busch Stadium.
“It’s such a cool thing that he’s the one that’s able to get the swing,†Gibson said of Pages. “He’s the one that called a great game, caught a great game and, man, put a big swing on it and took us over the top. A pretty awesome game for him.â€
The Cardinals (72-70) evened the series and gave themselves a chance at a series win in Sunday afternoon’s finale of the three-game set. They finished the night six games behind the New York Mets (78-64) for the final playoff spot in the National League, but the Cardinals also trailed the Atlanta Braves (77-65) and were in a tie with their rivals the Chicago Cubs (72-70).
Asked to compare the shutout to hitting the eventual game-winning home run, Pages said, “For me both (are) equally as valuable. Being able to work with Gibby, I hadn’t worked with him in a while, but being able to go out there and work with him and having that great success he had today — it just means a lot.â€
“I love working with my pitchers. So if I’m able to throw a shutout every day and put a good swing on a ball, it’s going to be great.â€
Pages’ home run gave him six in 55 games this season. He has hit three go-ahead home runs this season, including two in the eighth inning or later (the only Cardinal to do that this season).
Pages, who began the season with Triple-A Memphis, entered the day having batted .284 with a .308 on-base percentage and a .421 slugging percentage in 27 games (26 starts) since the start of July.
The Cardinals offense ran into a buzz saw in Gilbert, who made his first American League All-Star team earlier this summer. The 6-foot-6 right-hander came into the night leading all qualified pitchers in the AL in WHIP (0.90), quality starts (21) and opponent’s batting average (.199).
Gilbert didn’t allow a Cardinals batter to reach base until the fourth inning when Alec Burleson drew a walk. Gilbert didn’t give up a hit until Lars Nootbaar lined a one-out double into the right-center field gap in the fifth. He’d thrown just 47 pitches at that point.
Gilbert finished the night having allowed two runs on two hits, one walk and one hit batter. He struck out 10 batters, and he surpassed his previous career high for strikeouts in a season during the outing.
Gilbert (7-11) also became the first Mariners pitcher to take the loss on a night when he pitched eight innings or more and allowed two runs or fewer since Felix Hernandez did so on September 23, 2010.
“Across the way, Gilbert was gross,†said Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol, after he lauded Gibson’s performance. “That’s straight filth there. He was efficient. He commanded it. It was a nice little pitcher’s duel, for sure.â€
Gibson, who got a no decision, came within a few inches in the first inning of having a very different outlook on his outing.
Gibson allowed a pair of singles and a one-out walk to Luke Raley that loaded the bases. The Mariners (72-71) were within a heartbeat of potentially starting the game off with a big inning when designated hitter Justin Turner, a former two-time All-Star with five 20-homer seasons on his major-league resume, came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out.
Turner hooked an 0-2 sweeper from Gibson down the left field line. The ball smacked the grass just inches to the foul side of the white chalk line.
“No, I was not sure it was going foul,†Gibson said. “I was very sure that I had not executed a slider and I was going to be very mad at myself when it landed on the line, quite honestly.
"That’s one of those situations where recently I hadn’t been getting that baseball back and another chance at that. So I’m thankful that it was two, three inches foul and I had another chance at it.â€
Gibson then got Turner to swing and miss on his 21st pitch of the outing, another sweeper, for the second out.
Gibson then struck out Jorge Polanco, swinging, on a sweeper to end the inning. That stranded the bases loaded and kept the Mariners without a run.
“That one off of Turner’s bat,†Marmol said. “That easily could have been a double, scored a couple, put them in second and third. And a sac fly, it could have been three-nothing there after that inning. You give Gilbert a three-run lead in the first, best of luck to you.
“So to keep it 0-0 and to punch out three, that’s why I said that’s probably the game there. A really nice job by Gibby through his innings of work. The bullpen did a really nice job.â€
Starting with the back-to-back strikeouts to end the first inning, Gibson retired seven consecutive batters and 18 of 19 batters from the end of the first inning through the start of the seventh inning.
Gibson matched his season high for strikeouts in a game when he struck out Luke Raley, swinging, to end the sixth inning. That marked his ninth strikeout of the night, and it also marked the 10th consecutive batter Gibson retired.
“He was on a roll from the beginning,†Pages said of Gibson. “Those two hits in the first inning, obviously we wish didn’t happen. It was kind of just bloops. It happens. It’s part of baseball. But he was on a roll, after that especially.â€
Gibson retired Turner to start the seventh, but then walked Polanco. Gibson got J.P. Crawford to hit fly ball to center field for the second out of the inning.
Then, with left-hander JoJo Romero warming in the bullpen and the left-handed batting Rojas due up next, Gibson walked Mitch Haniger to put two men on base. That prompted Marmol to make a pitching change and bring in Romero. Gibson threw a season-high 112 pitches.
Romero entered with two men on and two outs in the seventh. After he walked the first batter he faced, pinch hitter Dylan Moore, Romero got Mariners star outfielder and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner Julio Rodriguez to hit an inning-ending grounder that kept the score tied 0-0.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Gilbert hit Jordan Walker on the arm with a 3-2 pitch that veered off the plate inside.
That set up Pages’ at-bat and the two-run homer.
“Having Walker, two strikes there, I know he’s aggressive,†Gilbert said. “He’s a good hitter. Obviously, we don’t want to leave one over the middle or anything. So really went a couple chase pitches there, daring him not to swing. He had a couple good takes, a couple too far out of the zone with the curve, the sinker there at the end.
“Then just left one over the middle. I think it was just a timing thing. We’re talking about milliseconds here being the difference from leaving it right over the middle and getting it down and away, maybe get a groundball there. But he put a good swing on it. A really competitive ballgame. You just tip your hat.â€
Pages, facing Gilbert for the third time in the game, took a fruitless swing at an 0-1 cutter. Then he took a 1-1 curveball in the dirt. The next pitch, a slider, stayed over the heart of the plate. Pages crushed it — exit velocity of 103.9 mph — and estimated 402 feet to left field for a two-run home run.
“My first two at-bats I was thinking heater the whole time, and he ended up getting me in that second at-bat with that heater,†Pages said. “But that last at-bat he started me with a cutter, went to the curveball, and I was like you know what — I’m just going to sit slider right here. See it up.
“He ended up throwing that pitch, and I got a good swing off on it.â€
Cardinals All-Star closer Ryan Helsley earned his 43rd save of the season, while Andrew Kittredge (4-4) got the win for pitching around a walk and a hit in the eighth inning.
Staff writer Daniel Guerrero contributed to this report.